Tech bucks trend Board caps tuition and fees

The Tech System Board of Regents listened to a three-plus hour special tutorial on Tech's budget before setting a maximum tuition and fee increase of 4.4 percent for the next academic year.

That means, under the most expensive scenario, Tech students would pay $154.95 per semester credit hour, or $9.33 more per hour than they currently pay, according to administrative reports.

Regents also set a maximum increase limit of 13.9 percent for Angelo State University.

In addition, they agreed to up the university's energy fee to no more $90. Full-time students currently pay $60. To stay within the new 2008-2009 increase cap, regents could drop the library fee from $16 to $14, as administrators proposed. Regents said they didn't believe this would hurt the operation of the library.

"We can't continue down a path of increasing and increasing tuition," said Tech Chancellor Kent Hance.

Regents should set actual tuition and fee rates May 8-9 in Lubbock during a meeting in which they also will consider the system's billion-dollar budget.

To keep tuition low, regents will have to trim expenses. That may put new initiatives in jeopardy and require college deans and department heads to streamline their budgets.

University leaders said they haven't determined exactly where the money to offset a tuition hike would be found, but they scrutinized about a dozen new initiatives during the Saturday meeting that could cost the university $7.6 million in the most expensive scenario.

"There will be no sacred cows," said Regent Windy Sitton of Lubbock. "Everybody may be asked to cut their budgets (at the university). I really want to hold the tuition and I would like for this to be a team effort," she said.

Three of the dozen initiatives are absolutely necessary, the system's chancellor, Hance, told regents. Needed are $85,000 to maintain a communications system that notifies the campus community of emergencies, $200,000 to hire faculty to handle accreditation issues in the strategic planning office and $120,000 to meet national minimum wage requirements, he said.

Hance also defended 2 percent merit raises for faculty, as well as recruiting and retention initiatives and investments in online courses. He ranked buying insurance for state buildings and investing in programs to diversify the university community lower on his list of priorities.

Historically, attending Tech is cheaper than attending Texas A & M and the University of Texas, according to a Tech administrative report. Tech leaders want to maintain that trend.

The university has two sources of revenue: the state and students. Balancing the budget is a tight rope walk, finance administrators told regents. State funds are distributed largely in relation to student body size and have declined in amount since the legislators deregulated tuition in 2003.

Administrators aren't certain more students will attend Tech next year, though applications are up about 14 percent from this time last year.

Angelo State administrators said they need to spend money on recruiting and retaining students and renovating below-par facilities to keep the university afloat. Tuition increases would help them pay for these initiatives, which students support, they said.

A committee of faculty, administrators and regents is examining how the university could save money by cracking down on the number of hours that faculty teach, but saving money through that avenue is more of a long-term goal, said the chairman of the board of regents, Scott Dueser.